SALFORD kept a clean sheet and picked up a much needed first win of the season - but that is just papering over the cracks.

The Reds were again naff with the ball-in-hand in what was surely the worst game of rugby since the dawn of Super League. The standard was so poor it was untrue with both sides dropping the ball with alarming regularity.

After screening the comedy of errors live, you can't see Sky Sports rushing back to book more games at The Willows.

Twenty five scrums and 21 penalties must be some sort of a record. But a win is a win and Salford will simply be relieved that their season is finally up and running.

Tries by Luke Dorn and skipper Malc Alker gave the Super League table a much better look to it for Salford fans with the Reds now just three points behind the early pacesetters.

And Salford can draw comfort from the fact that their defence was far better than it was in their first three games.

Catalan may well have been downright awful but it was still some achievement to restrict the French to just one clean break.

Salford's tackling and defensive organisation was spot on throughout and the forwards took their recent criticism on the chin to dominate the Dragons up front. Andy Coley, Michael Korkidas, Gareth Haggerty and Alker can all be pleased with their contributions.

Many of the backs, however, had a stinker and Salford fans went home thinking: "Thank goodness that Catalan were so bad."

A rare moment of quality saw Dorn step inside his marker out wide to give Salford the lead on 11 minutes following clever passes from Luke Robinson and Kevin McGuinness.

But Dorn is still not convincing at stand off and he was second only to youngster Luke Adamson in the biggest knock on culprit stakes.

The Reds had to wait 59 minutes for their second try with Alker bursting over from dummy half to put the game to bed.

They also had two tries disallowed by the video referee - hardly a surprise there as the chances of a video ref ruling in Salford's favour are as likely as Arsenal FC manager Arsene Wenger being gracious in defeat.

But there is no getting away from the fact that Salford are looking anything but a top six side at the moment.